Contracts will be “more sexy than before,” De Margerie
said today in an interview at Davos with Bloomberg TV. “They
are definitely expecting the embargo to be lifted.”

Europe’s third-biggest oil company, which stopped work on
Iran’s South Pars gas field in 2009 as the U.S. tightened
sanctions, has “no specific right to restart” work on previous
projects, he said. “Our project when we left was ended.”

Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s first leader in a decade to visit
Davos for the World Economic Forum, needs deals to rescue an
economy that shrank more than 5 percent last fiscal year under
the weight of sanctions. Some will be lifted, along with capital
controls, after a Nov. 24 deal in Geneva. Rouhani attended a
meeting with energy executives including De Margerie yesterday.

Negotiations will continue on eliminating the trade
sanctions in exchange for controls that ensure Iran’s nuclear
program is limited to power generation.

“The message was as usual ‘We have plenty of oil and
plenty of gas. We need your management skills, we need your
technology. We don’t really need your money,’” according to De
Margerie. “He said ‘We would like you to come back in our
country, which is prepared to offer you new terms, new
contractual terms’” in a few months.

South Pars

Iran’s priorities include developing South Pars, where
Total had worked to increase export capacity, and redeveloping
old fields to enhance output, the French executive said.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to
28 nations, estimated on Jan. 21 that purchasers imported about
1.07 million barrels a day from Iran in 2013. Oil prices fell in
late November after Iran reached a preliminary agreement.

“The fact that they are telling us to start moving, to get
ready, should mean that they are ready to make moves on the
political discussions,” De Margerie said. “Otherwise there is
no reason for them to come to tell us to be ready.”